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If you take a look at what's playing on a tablet in the hands of a young child, odds are good that you will see Rachel Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel to her tiny fans.
As an educational YouTuber with content aimed at kids under the age of three, Accurso knows firsthand how helpful certain educational content can be for little ones.
After all, her own son's struggles with delayed speech at that age are what inspired her to create her YouTube channel.
But, as technology has evolved to become an ever-present part of our lives as adults, one hotly debated question remains, how much is too much for tiny minds to consume?
"I think what’s really important in life—and for kids—is balance. You’re doing dishes, you’re doing laundry, maybe you’re exhausted. Or maybe they’re really cranky, and it helps to put something on sometimes," Accurso said in a recent interview with Glamour.
With master's degrees in early childhood education and music education, Accurso knows that while screen time can have its place, there are many important parts of early childhood development that children need live human interaction for.
"For the really little ones, zero to three, that I have an expertise in, it’s really important that they have what Harvard calls 'serve-and-return interactions,'" Accurso continued in the interview. "So say they’re at the grocery store with you and they point, and you’re like, ‘Oh, you see the apples?’ And then they’re like, ‘Yeah.’ And you’re like, ‘Wow, should we get an apple? I’m going to pick out an apple.’ So you’re narrating your day, having those back-and-forth interactions. You can’t replace those with a screen."
For busy parents, handing young children a screen may seem like a simple way to ensure good behavior in difficult moments. But too much screen time can have a variety of negative consequences for a child, including difficulty sleeping, poor self-image, mood swings, and more.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) recommends forgoing screen time completely outside of video calling with family members until children are 18 months old. Then, from 18- to 24-months, the AACAP recommends that screen time be strictly educational and monitored by a caregiver. Once children reach ages two to five, the AACAP says occasional non-educational screen time may be introduced, but it should be limited to no more than one hour per weekday and three hours on weekend days.
With these healthy guidelines in mind, Accurso expressed that, generally speaking, parents are trying their best and should release themselves from the guilt of not following every guideline perfectly 100% of the time.
“I think expecting parents to never use screens—how is that possible? I think guilt can be a very heavy thing to carry as a parent. I think we don’t need to feel as guilty as we do,” Accurso said.
